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Apple Inc (AAPL) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Record Revenue and Strategic AI Investments

Apple Inc (AAPL) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Record Revenue and Strategic AI Investments

Yahoo4 days ago
Revenue: $94 billion, up 10% year over year, a June quarter record.
Earnings Per Share (EPS): $1.57, up 12% year over year, a June quarter record.
iPhone Revenue: $44.6 billion, up 13% year over year.
Mac Revenue: $8 billion, up 15% year over year.
iPad Revenue: $6.6 billion, down 8% year over year.
Wearables, Home, and Accessories Revenue: $7.4 billion, down 9% year over year.
Services Revenue: $27.4 billion, up 13% year over year, an all-time record.
Gross Margin: 46.5%, down 60 basis points sequentially.
Operating Expenses: $15.5 billion, up 8% year over year.
Net Income: $23.4 billion, a June quarter record.
Operating Cash Flow: $27.9 billion.
Tariff-related Costs: $800 million for the June quarter.
Cash and Marketable Securities: $133 billion.
Shareholder Returns: Over $27 billion returned, including $3.9 billion in dividends and $21 billion in share repurchases.
Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with BIO.
Release Date: July 31, 2025
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.
Positive Points
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported a June quarter revenue record of $94 billion, up 10% year over year.
iPhone revenue grew 13% year over year, driven by the popularity of the iPhone 16 family.
Mac revenue increased by 15% year over year, with strong performance in emerging markets.
Services revenue reached an all-time high of $27.4 billion, up 13% year over year.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is significantly increasing its investment in AI, embedding it across devices and platforms.
Negative Points
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) incurred approximately $800 million in tariff-related costs for the June quarter.
iPad revenue was down 8% year over year due to difficult comparisons with previous product launches.
Wearables, Home, and Accessories revenue decreased by 9% year over year.
The company expects $1.1 billion in tariff-related costs for the September quarter, impacting gross margins.
Operating expenses increased by 8% year over year, reaching $15.5 billion.
Q & A Highlights
Q: On upgrade rates, are the records on iPhone, Mac, and Watch due to strength in upgrade rates or the growing installed base? What makes upgrades particularly compelling this year? A: Timothy Cook, CEO: The records are due to the strength of the products. The iPhone 16 family grew double digits compared to the 15 family, setting an upgrade record. Mac also set records due to the performance of Apple Silicon. There was a pull forward of demand due to tariff discussions, estimated to be about 1 point of the 10 points of growth. A: Kevan Parekh, CFO: CapEx is up due to significant investments in AI and private cloud compute. We have a hybrid strategy, using both third-party and our own investments.
Q: How did the rest of the quarter play out for services, given reports of declining Safari searches? Are Apple products losing strategic value as AI platforms become more valuable? A: Timothy Cook, CEO: Apple products continue to be very valuable. Consumer behaviors are evolving, and we are monitoring them closely.
Q: Can you elaborate on demand in China, particularly for the iPhone 16 and other products? A: Timothy Cook, CEO: We grew 4% in Greater China, driven by iPhone and Mac. Government subsidies affected some products. The installed base hit a record high, and we set an all-time record for iPhone upgraders in Mainland China. The MacBook Air was the top-selling laptop model in China.
Q: What is your confidence in launching a more personalized Siri next year, and how is AI investment progressing? A: Timothy Cook, CEO: We are making good progress on a more personalized Siri and expect to release features next year. Our AI focus is on deeply personal, private, and seamlessly integrated features. We are significantly growing our investment in AI.
Q: Why would revenue growth decelerate to high single digits if services growth remains at 13%? A: Kevan Parekh, CFO: The deceleration is due to the tariff-related pull ahead of demand and the difficult compare from last year's iPad launches. Foreign exchange is a minor tailwind.
Q: How would Apple respond if Google payments were not allowed, given their significance to profitability? A: Timothy Cook, CEO: We don't want to speculate on court rulings and potential responses.
Q: How is Apple preparing for a potential shift away from screen-based devices due to AI developments? A: Timothy Cook, CEO: iPhone's capabilities make it difficult to see a world without it. We are considering complementary devices, not substitutions.
Q: How does Apple plan to offset the $1.1 billion tariff headwind in the September quarter? A: Timothy Cook, CEO: We optimize our supply chain and plan to do more in the US, including a $500 billion investment over four years. We are building chips in Arizona and have other initiatives in place.
Q: Did the Epic case impact services growth, and what does the appeal process look like? A: Kevan Parekh, CFO: We had a strong services quarter with broad-based growth. The Epic decision change was introduced in the June quarter, and we continue to innovate the App Store experience.
Q: How is Apple's supply chain strategy evolving, particularly with production in India and Southeast Asia? A: Timothy Cook, CEO: The majority of iPhones sold in the US are from India, while other products are from Vietnam. We are doing more in the US, including a $500 billion investment and various manufacturing initiatives.
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
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‘How much does it cost for fascism?': Tensions erupt at Nebraska GOP congressman's town hall
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‘How much does it cost for fascism?': Tensions erupt at Nebraska GOP congressman's town hall

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How is Bureau of Labor Statistics data collected, and why is Trump targeting it?
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How is Bureau of Labor Statistics data collected, and why is Trump targeting it?

A government agency best known for its number-crunching prowess became the target of the president's criticism last week when a federal jobs report was revised to show a less-than-rosy economic picture. President Donald Trump ordered the firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after a bleak jobs report showed signs of a slowing economy, and revised figures revealed things were worse for the labor market than initially reported in May and June. The high-profile firing and fallout has cast a spotlight on the agency's data, which has long been used to measure key markers of the economy. The BLS, an agency of the Labor Department, collects and analyzes data on the labor market and consumer prices, and its reports are used widely throughout government and industry to inform economic decisions. Here's what you need to know about the agency's data and what happens next. Trump ordered the firing of McEntarfer last week after a federal jobs report showed a much weaker labor market than many expected and announced that hiring in May and June was downgraded by a quarter of a million jobs fewer than previously reported. That bleak report caused the president to criticize McEntarfer, a Biden appointee, for overseeing what he called 'faked' jobs numbers. Without evidence, he alleged the jobs numbers had been manipulated for political purposes both last year and this year. McEntarfer was appointed to the role in 2024 by President Joe Biden and confirmed on a bipartisan Senate vote. Commissioners serve four-year terms and often overlap with multiple presidential administrations. In an email to staff after her ousting, McEntarfer defended the BLS's work. 'BLS produces some of the most closely watched economic data in the nation,' she wrote. 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The data collected by BLS is considered the best information of what's going on in the labor economy, said Katharine Abraham, an economics professor at the University of Maryland who was the commissioner of the BLS from 1993 to 2001, during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. 'That's not to say that there isn't noise, but it's considered to be the best information we have,' she said. Other analyses of the labor market and economy are released by private businesses or industry groups, but one of the reasons BLS data is considered so powerful is because of the breadth of information the agency can collect, pulling on its credibility and connections with the Census Bureau and others. Some economists worry that the shake-up within the BLS could lead to fewer respondents taking surveys. 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Why the market is shrugging off Trump's firing of the BLS chief
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Yahoo

time30 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Why the market is shrugging off Trump's firing of the BLS chief

Trump fired the head of the BLS on Friday, but so far, markets have looked past the shock decision. Sources say there are a variety of other sources investors can use to assess the employment picture. Strong earnings and higher rate-cut odds are powering stocks higher on Monday. August kicked off with a shocker, with Donald Trump firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a less-than-rosy July employment report. The move sparked prognostications about untrustworthy government data going forward and comparisons to China, which some believe is uninvestable due to issues with data quality. Then why is the market unfazed as trading kicks off on Monday? Stocks rallied to start the week, with the Dow up almost 500 points at midday and the Nasdaq Composite jumping as much as 2%. For now, markets are focused on other things, like the higher odds of a September rate cut after the employment picture suddenly soured. "Obviously, the firing was unconventional. That's pretty much everything with this administration compared to previous administrations, but at this point, there is so much private data that the market can look at other sources," Paul Hickey, cofounder of Bespoke Investment Group, told Business Insider. Apart from the BLS statistics that investors already parse, there's a patchwork of private and public data, including ADP data, hiring and firing data from a range of consulting firms, and labor market sentiment indicators from sources like the Conference Board. "There are private sources of data, and if they are moving in the opposite direction from the government data, then it becomes an indicator that something is off with the statistics,"Aleksandar Tomic, Associate Dean, Strategy, Innovation, & Technology at Boston College, told Business Insider. Trump said Erika McEntarfer's firing was justified and that the July data had been manipulated to make the administration look bad. He did not offer evidence for this claim, though White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said the revisions in the data are "hard evidence." The July revisions were substantial, showing that the US added nearly 260,000 fewer jobs in May and June than had been initially reported. Trump and Republicans have also criticized earlier revisions, including last year's that showed over 800,000 fewer jobs added in the 12 months leading up to March 2024. The irony of Trump's anger over the July jobs numbers is that the weak report has pushed up the odds of the September rate cut to nearly 90%, getting the president closer to seeing the Fed loosen monetary policy as he's been demanding all year. But for investors, things like the robust GDP report for the second quarter and solid corporate earnings, particularly among mega-cap tech giants, are boosting the outlook for the market even as Trump's move stirs some uncertainty. For Sergio Altomare, a former senior enterprise architect at the Fed, the next big question is who will replace McEntarfer at the helm of the BLS. "I think the ultimate impact is going to take time to sort itself out, but I think really the immediate thing is, who gets appointed? What is their background? What does the data show? Is it dramatically different from what we're seeing?" Altomare said that it will be difficult to properly assess the impact of Trump's decision on financial markets until these questions have clear answers. Luckily for markets, some answers could come soon. Trump has said that in the coming days, he'll nominate a new BLS chief, as well as a replacement for Fed Gov. Adriana Kugler, who resigned on Friday. Both positions require confirmation by the Senate. It is also worth noting that some agree with the president's decision. For his part, investing legend Ray Dalio said on Monday that he, too, would probably fire the BLS chief. In a post on X, he described the agency's process for making key economic estimates as "obsolete and error-prone," with no plan to fix it. "The revisions brought the numbers toward private estimates that were in fact much better," Dalio said. Read the original article on Business Insider

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